1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to client/server networks and, more particularly, to a system and method for accelerating client access of remote information items by predicting user actions.
2. Description of the Background
Client-based software programs called “web accelerators” address the problem of file system latency by pre-fetching web pages from a server device in advance of a request from an associated client. Typically, web accelerators come in the form of a browser plug-in that can recognize the links present on the displayed web page and start to download the information they represent, in advance of a user request, into a storage area of the client computer called a memory cache. By the time the client user is finished viewing the displayed page and clicks on the next link, the information associated with that next link is already available in the client user's memory cache. Other software programs allow the web page developer to assign a probability to each link, or otherwise indicate a preference, which corresponds to the likelihood that the client user will choose that link next. Those links that the user is most likely to choose are assigned the highest probability while rarely accessed links are assigned little or no weight. Despite these innovations, users still experience significant delays when an information request causes the server to access the information from back-end systems. Back-end systems, as used herein, refer to remote systems such as data warehouse repositories or legacy systems.
A system and method is needed for reducing delays in accessing information from backend systems. The system should also have sufficient flexibility to selectively retrieve information items from the backend system. The system should also be capable of accelerating client access to backend systems without unnecessarily consuming bandwidth between the client and server devices. Finally, the system needs to be simple to implement on a wide-scale basis without requiring upgrades to individual browsers.